Bittersweet by Madeleine Urban

3 STARS

Short and sweet. :) Those are the first words that came to mind when I sat down to pen my thoughts. Apparently this was Madeleine's first book published by Dreamspinner and I can see the difference between it and her later works. 

Bittersweet is an out and out romance with maybe an overtone of paranormal. The problem I had with it was that I wanted more. The main characters, Harrison and Piers, were nicely fleshed out and nicely unique in the world of m/m romance. (I was especially pleased that Harrison had a 'lightly furred' chest. I know, shallow, but it tickled - oh, bad pun - me.) 

There was a great plot here but I wished it had been filled out more. I wanted more interaction between Harrison and his son, I wanted more of the battle between Harrison and his soon-to-be ex-wife. I wanted to know more about Piers and the relationship he had with his best friend, Gerard. Okay, I just wanted MORE. 

The love scenes were hot - there was one kiss especially that was really, really well done - and despite the straying into purple prose' territory once in a while, I quite enjoyed them. All in all, a nice read for a quiet evening, but again, I think I'd have enjoyed it more if there had been more. That being said, Madeleine Urban remains as one of my most very favorite m/m authors.

Caught Running by Madeleine Urban and Abigail Roux

5 STARS

Loved, loved, LOVED it!

A Tale from de Rode by Abigail Roux

3 STARS

I wanted more of the story. :) But I really enjoyed it.

Forever by Jude Deveraux

2 STARS

Forever - Book 1

It wasn't as good as I was hoping it would be. 

I love Jude Deveraux's early books. Her "Highland Velvet" is my absolute favorite romance novel. But I have to think that ever since she began to venture into time-travel romance and paranormal romance, her quality has dropped off. 

I just didn't find her characters as likeable as they used to be. And the plot deserved to be thicker and juicier. 

I was just disappointed.

Northern Lights by Nora Roberts

4 STARS

This was Nate's book, not Meg's, and man, was that ever cool. 

One of Nora's biggest strengths is her wonderfully flawed, quirky, sexy, fully-fleshed out male characters; and with Northern Lights she finally gave the man a starring role. 

Depressed and broken Nate arrives in Alaska and finds a reason, a multitude of reasons, to not give up. That's the gist of it, in a nutshell. But Nora does it in such a way that it's an incredibly entertaining read. This book wasn't so much about the romance and the hot sex - yes, there was some, but it was by no means the focal point of the story. Nor was the growing relationship between Nate and Meg. It was the story of Nate making himself a place. 

Going from 'Outsider' to belonging and becoming more or less at peace with his past. Some of my favorite scenes were Nate interacting with his deputies, Otto and Peter, and his office manager/dispatcher/aide-de-camp, Peach. How they all came to like and respect one another despite suspicions and events getting in the way. 

Other favorite scenes included Nate constantly butting heads with the natives and long-time residents of Lunacy as he spends his first long night of winter as the town's police chief. Wonderfully colourful and endearing characters, a beautiful setting, a mystery that kept me wondering until the very end; Northern Lights was a juicy and fun read and left me with a big smile on my face. 

Yeah, Nate and Meg got their happily ever after, but the more satisfying end was that Nate allowed himself to heal and make a new and better place for himself.

Valley of Silence by Nora Roberts

4 STARS

The Circle Trilogy - Book 3

I think the second half of this book was my most favorite part of the whole trilogy. And that was, for the most part, because of Cian, the vampiric hero. 'Cause Moira? The heroine? Wasn't too terribly fond of her. I never, throughout the whole trilogy warmed up to her character.

Cian, however, came alive for me (no pun intended) during the latter half of Valley of Silence. He was not my favorite male lead in the trilogy, that title would have to go to Larkin, the hero of book 2, but beneath Cian's tough and bland exterior lurked a little boy lost that just made me take him to heart. Was it a satisfying culmination to the trilogy? Yes. 

The final battle scene was much better, much more fulfilling than I expected to get from a romance novel. Everyone got their comeuppance as they should have and the romance and the 'happily ever afters' were just as I wanted them to be. 

Was this my favorite of Nora's trilogies? No, it wasn't. But I did thoroughly enjoy the hell out of it. I think the reason it isn't my favorite is that the plot was so thick, so intricate; there were so many secondary characters to get to know; so much that had to happen to get the six of the Circle to the final battle, that their characterizations may have suffered. And it's the characters I love best about Nora's books.

Red Lily by Nora Roberts

3 STARS

In The Garden Trilogy -Book 3

A very satisfying end to the In the Garden trilogy.

Again, as with many of Nora's books, it was Harper, the male lead who I found to be the most interesting character. I liked his quiet, introspective ways, as well as his lean, hot sexiness, of course. And I liked him and Hayley together as a couple. They worked for me. 

My one regret about this trilogy is that we didn't get a romance for David, Harper's best friend, Roz's right hand man and housekeeper and the best cook and babysitter alive. *grin* Yeah, I'd like Nora to be writing a little bit of gay romance. I'd be totally down with that. 

So, looking for a fun and sexy romantic trilogy with fun heroines and sexy heroes and lots of terrific dialogue and hot sex scenes? Give the In the Garden trilogy a try. I don't think you'll regret it.

Black Rose by Nora Roberts

4 STARS

In the Garden Trilogy - Book 2

I want my own Mitch Carnegie.

That being said, you can guess that I loved this second book in the In The Garden trilogy. Roz, the indomitable Rosalind, the 47-year old heroine (Yes, 47 years old, my friends.) totally engaged me. A case could be made that it's because she's very close to my own age of 51 and I would have to admit to it being a very good case. It was totally refreshing to see a woman with grown children portrayed as a vibrant, sensual being with a wonderfully dry sense of humour.

And then there's Mitch. The sexily studious professor/writer and genealogist. He's so wonderfully calm and low-key - until stirred up by the wonderful Roz, of course! And, God love him, he wears sexy glasses! And he's a recovering alcoholic (12 years sober). Now that's something you don't see in a romance every day.

It was wonderful to watch Roz blossom (it's a flower trilogy, okay!) as she allows herself to follow through on her feelings for Mitch. Take time for herself, now that her boys are grown and her business is rolling along swimmingly well. She's one cool lady, in my opinion.

The ghost of the trilogy, the Harper Bride, makes her obligatory shit-disturbing appearances and we get closer to finding out exactly what she wants. But really, that's secondary to the love story between Roz and Mitch.

As usual, Nora Roberts' male characters are funny, sexy, flawed and wonderful and totally elevate her stories above the norm for romantic fiction. Yep, I really, REALLY loved this book. It was a sexy, fun read and I feel pretty safe in saying I'll be reading it again in the future.

High Noon by Nora Roberts

3 STARS

I enjoyed it. It wasn't quite what I was expecting, that I'll have to admit. The romance between Phoebe and Duncan was not front and centre throughout the majority of book, but instead, ran neck and neck with the mystery/threat of the 'stalker'. 

The book read as having a little more J. D. Robb flavouring in it than many of the Nora Roberts titles I have read. And that was okay! 

What I did miss, though, was that because of the mystery being more prominent, I felt that I didn't get to explore Duncan's character more. Nora's strength, or one of them at any rate, is her ability to write fun, flawed, sexy, quirky male leads and I felt she just scratched the surface with our man Duncan. But all in all, a very enjoyable read.

Angels Fall by Nora Roberts

4 STARS

This was a terrific book! I didn't think I was going to enjoy it in the beginning. I wasn't finding much sympathetic about Reece, the heroine. Her intense phobias, though very understandable given her past, grated on my nerves. I was feeling it was overkill, a total manipulation on the author's part to gain the reader's sympathy. But somewhere around chapter 4, she really began to grow on me. Under all those fears and phobias, she actually had some backbone. 

Coincidence that it began to show itself when she began to interact with the hero? And I don't mean in that obvious, run-of-the-mill romance novel way. Nope, just good writing on the part of the author, I think.

And, Brody, the oh-so-male mystery writer. Hot damn, but he's a sexy piece of work. And proud owner of about every 'guy' cliche going. He should be unlikeable, but he's not. He's amusing and funny and just utterly delectable. Yeah, I fell in love with him too.

The dialogue between Reece and Brody is priceless. Clever, flip, sarcastic, witty and so laugh-out-loud when Reece finds herself saying exactly what's on her mind. I grew to love the both of them.The mystery driving this story was a good one. Took me a long, long while to even get a suspicion of who I thought the bad guy might be. And I really enjoyed the resolution, I have to admit. A really, really good read. Definitely in my Nora Roberts Top 5.